Various types of packaging for fruits are well-known in the current marketplace; in each case, the determining factors of the most suited for each case being the maintenance of the optimal physiological conditions of the product, extending its preservation, and the appropriate presentation to make it attractive to the consumer. It must be borne in mind at all times that the packaging factor must not significantly increase the final price of the product.
Among said packaging, various groups may be discerned, such as those for bulk transport and sale for example, which include the well-known corrugated cardboard or wooden boxes; those for retail sale, such as trays, bags and sacks, usually made of plastic material, and those destined for products requiring special preservation conditions, such as selectively permeable multilayer bags for vacuum packing and preservation at low temperatures.
Among said groups of packages, those most suited for high value added products, that is, those sought by gourmet-style consumers, are those for retail sale, such as trays of moulded pulp or polystyrene, plastic bags or mesh sacks.
This type of consumer appreciates more and more the correct presentation and quality of the final product, also existing a tendency to seek products whose handling, from their collection at source to their purchase by the end buyer at the sales outlet, has been kept to a minimum.
In accordance with the different types of market, it may be more convenient to show either a lateral view of the fruit, so as to view its shape and colour, or a top view, which reveals one of the extremities of the strawberry, enabling the purchaser to observe the state of preservation.
Current packages do not provide the possibility to show, in a single container and individually, the different units of the fruit in question in accordance with the different orientations preferred in the different types of market, nor do they enable the establishment and maintenance of appropriate conditions to guarantee optimal preservation.